Vietnam Photo Tour
October 1- 10, 2027
Vietnam, a land of breathtaking contrasts and timeless charm, captivates with its natural beauty and rich cultural tapestry. Join Jim for an extraordinary visual journey in one of Asia's most beautiful countries. Drones are welcome on this photography tour! (No drone license is required). Whether you are taking pictures from ground-level or from an elevated perspective, you will love Vietnam's stunning landscapes, warm and welcoming people, and super saturated color. The countryside is a patchwork of lush green fields interspersed with towering limestone karsts and meandering rivers. In villages like Hoi An, traditional stilt houses and ancient temples evoke a sense of timeless tranquility. This is a photo tour not to be missed!
What you will learn on this photo tour:
-- Using HDR at twilight
-- Focus stacking with telephotos for landscapes
-- Advantages of panos instead of wide angle lenses
-- How you can avoid using histograms all the time
-- How to use ND filters to eliminate people
-- Advantages of using manual exposure mode
-- Identifying S curves for strong compositions
-- Working with foreign models
ITINERARY
Day 1, October 1, Friday
Arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam (airport code HAN) on this day, and after clearing customs and immigration, you'll be promptly transferred to our 5-star hotel. Our adventure begins with a visit to a family in a small village known for their intricate bamboo weavings for making fish traps. They make all kinds of both attractive and functional products using a centuries-old technique. This is great portrait photography, too. Excited over our first taste of award-winning photography, we return to the hotel to enjoy a welcome dinner and to get to know the other members in the tour. Jim recommends arriving one day early to recover from jet lag and to start the tour on the September 30 refreshed and rested. Overnight Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel, Hanoi or the Novotel Hanoi Thai Ha Hotel.
Day 2, October 2, Saturday
This will be an awesome day for photography. Our adventure begins with a visit to the enchanting incense village. The super saturated color, the patterns and design, and a worker posing in the midst of all the color make stunning shots. We arrive early to avoid other tourists. This is an awesome drone shot as well. Next, we visit a soy sauce production company. We'll capture the traditional craftsmanship and time-honored techniques that define this culinary cornerstone. This is a good place to look for strong graphic design, leading lines, and striking patterns either from the ground or using a drone. After lunch, photograph the production of colorful sleeping mats from an elevated perspective. The mixture of colors and patterns is striking. Overnight Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel, Hanoi or Novotel Hanoi Thai Ha Hotel.
Day 3, October 3, Sunday
In the enchanting Tam Con Valley near Hanoi there is a group of women whose hobby it is to artistically arrange floating water lilies in beautiful designs. We photograph this colorful and graphically dynamic scene with a medium telephoto lens. The mirror reflections as seen from ground level add to the beauty of the scene. From a drone, you get an entirely different perspective and these images, also, are striking. After lunch we visit the ancient Duong Lam village which still functions as it did centuries ago. It is a living museum of traditional Vietnamese rural life where we capture candid moments of locals tending to their daily routines amidst centuries-old houses and narrow alleys rich with cultural heritage. Overnight Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel, Hanoi or the Novotel Hanoi Thai Ha Hotel.
Day 4, October 4, Monday
Vietnam has the most beautiful rice terraces in Asia. Today we leave Hanoi and head toward the Tu Le Valley, renowned for its expansive rice terraces that cascade down the mountainsides like natural stairways. Created by hand over centuries, it is indeed astonishing that people could literally carve entire mountains for the sole purpose to increase food production. There are endless ways in which to compose this unique landscape. You’ll want to capture the intricate patterns and vibrant hues of rural Vietnam with both telephoto lenses and a wide angle. If you’ve brought a drone on the tour, this is truly an outstanding opportunity to take aware-winning images. Overnight in the beautiful Mu Cang Chai Garrya Resort.
Day 5, October 5, Tuesday
The day begins at the breathtaking Mam Xoi viewpoint in Mu Cang Chai, where the sunrise bathes the rolling landscapes in a golden glow. We spend the day wandering through the stunning rice terraces of Mu Cang Chai, each vista revealing vibrant green fields framed by towering mountains.
Later we photograph the Hmong people in a corn shack with daylight streaming in from outside. In the same village, there are stunning horseshoe-shaped rice terraces that offer powerful graphic designs. In the late afternoon, we capture the last rays of light on the elegant curves of this agricultural marvel. If a cloud cover blocks the sun, the diffused light is also beautiful. Either way, it is awesome photography! Overnight Garrya Mu Cang Chai Resort, Mu Cang Chai Town
Day 6, October 6, Wednesday
This morning we say goodbye to the awe-inspiring landscapes we loved photographing. By afternoon, we drive back to Hanoi and board a flight to Hue. We then drive to our a luxurious 5-star hotel and get ready for some great night photography. Melia Vinpearl Hue Hotel, Hue City.
Day 7, October 7, Thursday
We enjoy a great day in Hue starting with the sunrise over the lagoon just outside the city. Next, explore the grand Imperial City alongside beautiful Vietnamese models dressed in traditional outfits, bringing authenticity and cultural depth to every photo. Their exquisite white outfits contrasts perfectly with the detailed architecture and bold colors of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later, we capture fishermen casting their nets in time-honored fashion. You'll want to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the nets in various shapes. This is followed by a visit to the paper flower village. We will take pictures of a woman at work creates colorful and detailed flowers out of paper. The day winds down with a tranquil lantern ceremony along the river during the captivating blue hour and a stunning candle lighting ceremony in an ancient temple. Overnight Melia Vinpearl Hue Hotel, Hue City
Day 8, October 8, Friday
We drive today to the Ba Na Hills on the outskirts of Da Nang to photograph from many different angles the remarkable Golden Hand Bridge. We'll get to the mountain and take a cable car to the top. Our hotel for this evening is here, and we check in and have lunch. We'll photograph the amazing town, and then to get to the bridge we take another, shorter cable car. The stunning bridge is supported by huge supports in the form of human hands. There's nothing like it anywhere in the world. You can take awesome shots with a wide angle lens standing on the bridge and with a medium telephoto from a short distance away. There is a path that runs the length of the bridge, and this affords excellent vantages. From a drone, it's magnificent. We stay until sunset to capture exquisite light on the bridge. Overnight in the Mercure Ba Na Hill Hotel.
Day 9, October 9, Saturday
We'll do a sunrise shoot on the Golden Hand Bridge, have breakfast, and return to the base of the mountain by cable car again. From here we drive to Da Nang to visit a nature preserve in which the critically endangered red shanked doc monkeys live. These beautiful primates, endemic to Vietnam, number only 2000 to 2400 in the wild. We then continue on to our hotel. Overnight Wafaifo Hoi An Hotel, Hoi An City.
Day 10, October 10, Sunday
Today we’ll visit a master mask painter and his studio. Some of his masks are 6 feet tall, all expertly painted with traditional artistry. We also have a photo session with an elderly lady who is quite happy to pose for us. She has a wonderful face for classic portraiture. We then transfer to the airport in Da Nang for our return flight home.
blending skill with the sea’s rhythm. These moments will create lasting memories and stunning photographs of coastal life. We then driving to Da Nang and overnight in an airport hotel.
Day 11, October 23, Thursday
Arrange your flight home at any time from DaNang's International Airport (code DAD), knowing you've taken very special pictures of a beautiful and amazing country.
Tour cost: $7990. Includes 10 nights lodging based on double occupancy in superior hotels, all ground transportation, two domestic flights, all meals, airport transfers, site entry fees, model fees, non-alcoholic beverages daily, services of an English-speaking local guide, photo instruction, and critiques on demand.
Single supplement fee (to have your own room): $990
Not included: International airfare, trip cancellation insurance, medical evacuation insurance, alcohol, visa, tips for guide and drivers.
Additional information:
When booking airfare for this trip, keep in mind if you depart from North America, you'll cross the International Dateline. This means one day is lost. Departing on September 29, for example, means an arrival in Vietnam on October 1. On the return trip, you'll regain that day. Typically, if you depart Vietnam on October 10, after flying for about 20 to 24 hours, you arrive on October 10 as well.